Once More with Passion

Mel Gibson and Newmarket Films have new plans for The Passion. On March 11th, The Passion Recut opens in theaters with a somewhat less visceral presentation.

Newmarket recently put up a teaser page for the film, which includes a new trailer and a video message from Gibson. For those of you with QuickTime and Windows Media video capability, click here to have a look at the teaser page and the new video material. And for those of with a slow connection or no video capability, here's a transcript of what Gibson has to say about the project:

"The Passion Recut. I suppose you want the scoop. Thank you, by the way, for all the support you gave me out there. And many of you who really loved the film wrote in, told me. But there were some of you who wrote in and said that you wish that you could have taken your Aunt Martha, Uncle Harry, or your grandmother or some of your older kids. And you thought that perhaps the intensity of the film was prohibitive to those people. So, I listened to that and I was... it inspired me to re-cut the film to cater to those people who perhaps might not have seen it because of its intensity or brutality. It's about five minutes, six minutes less, and indeed I have softened it somewhat. It's still a hard film. I maintained the integrity of the film that I wanted to make, yet alleviated some of the more horrific aspects of it. So I'm hoping that it will attract wider audiences and I hope you like it. I like it."

What we have for you below are seven new images from The Passion Recut courtesy of Newmarket Films. Each is clickable for a high-res version.